Is There Hope?

In a time of kings and swords, Ronki finds that the simple life of a farmer is not what he dreamed it to be. The nightmare of life just continues to get worse and threatens to rip everything away from him. He can’t let it take his magical little princess from him, but really is there any hope?This is for A Hidden Power competition.

6. Dress Up

The walls only lasted a few hours. Throngog had obviously found the hidden power that he had been searching for in those bringers of death and destruction. Instead of huge wooden siege engines that hurled rocks, there were much smaller cylindrical metal tubes that boomed like thunder and propelled metal balls. They crushed stone, wood and bone alike. How could they fight against such an awesome force? Then, of course, there were the tens of thousands of foot soldiers that were now storming through the gaping holes in the once solid wall. His army was scattered and confused. They were expecting a siege or at least a day or two of bombardment, not this quick and destructive attack. They were taken by surprise and were succumbing to the wave of destruction.

“Well it looks like death has caught up to us old friend” sighed Bramith as he walked up to Ronki’s side.

“I have thought that before, but I would have to agree. I see no escaping it this time.”

“Look, here comes the seal of our death. Throngog has decided to send his cavalry to join the array. I guess he wants to be done by lunch time.”

Sure enough, Ronki could see thousands of horses and riders making their way to the back of the city to join in the ransack.

“Daddy, daddy look!” cried an all too familiar voice.

He turned and looked at his little princess. Wow, she looked just like a princess. She was dressed in a beautiful pink dress that poofed out below the waist. She was even wearing little glass slippers.

Bramith found words before he did, “Now don’t you look nice. Where in heaven did you ever find those?”

“I used magic to make them appear. I am a real princess now.” she said as she gave a twirl.

“Magic, you say. Well do you have any more of it?” joked Bramith.

“Yes” she said as she stopped twirling and made a tin chip appear and then disappear in her hand.

Bramith laughed and looked over to his still speechless friend, “Now isn’t that something. I just wish she could use her magic to make all of Throngog’s soldiers, ours.”

“How would I do that?”

“You just use magic to make them obey your voice and make them fight for us.”

“No, I can’t do that. Magic does not work like that.”

“Ohh well, I would have loved to see old Throngog’s face as he realized that his cavalry was attacking his own foot soldiers.”

Ronki saw his little girl thinking about what Bramith had just said. She then ran up to the edge of the balcony overlooking the city and the battle. Then with a look of determination and concentration see glared at the enemy soldiers. It happened in an instant. Ronki’s jaw dropped as did the baffled Bramith. One moment, Throngog’s blood red army was ripping through pockets of soldiers dressed in the capital’s green garb and the next, Throngog’s army was clad in green. The confusion was immediate as Throngog’s forces started to fight the green all around them, ripping themselves apart. Then the cavalry rounded the edge of the city and charged right into Throngog’s green troops. What were those words that the magic man had said? “I now present you with power, not just of creation or destruction, but of change."

Idra was using magic and with that realization, Ronki realized one more thing, that there is hope!